A Ministry of Labor committee today proposed next year raising the minimum monthly wage from NT$28,590 to NT$29,500 and the minimum hourly wage from NT$190 to NT$196, an increase of 3.18 and 3.16 percent respectively.
The Executive Yuan would have to approve the proposal.
Prior to the committee meeting, labor unions called for a minimum wage hike of at least a 3 percent to match public sector salary growth, while employer representatives said that there was room to raise the minimum wage despite US tariff pressures.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, Confederation of Taipei Trade Unions and Taiwan Federation of Financial Unions told a news conference this morning before the meeting that they hoped to raise the minimum wage for the 10th consecutive year.
It would be reasonable to increase the minimum wage by 4 percent based on consumer price index and GDP data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions president Tai Kuo-jung (戴國榮) said.
That would raise the monthly minimum wage from NT$28,590 to NT$29,734 and the minimum hourly wage from NT$190 to NT$198 to meet the basic living needs of marginal workers, Tai said.
The adjustment would reflect inflation and increase the purchasing power of marginal workers, stabilizing social consumerism, he said.
As the salaries of public servants, teachers and military personnel rose an average of 3 percent this year, the minimum wage should be increased by at least the same amount, he added.
Rising living costs and persistent inflation are eroding workers’ purchasing power, and although Taiwan’s economy is projected to grow more than 4 percent next year, those gains have not reached grassroots workers, risking negative real wage growth and a widening wealth gap, Tai said.
Most minimum wage workers are employed by small and medium-sized enterprises and traditional industries, not high-growth sectors such as information and communication technology and semiconductors, Chinese National Federation of Industries executive director Sam Ho (何語) said.
Ho said that he supports raising the minimum wage, but the amount would be decided by the committee.
With Taiwan’s rising inflation, workers struggle without wage increases, while employers also face greater burdens due to tariffs, committee member Yu Yu-chih (余玉枝) said.
There is room to adjust the minimum wage, but it is important to work together to overcome the challenging environment created by tariffs, Yu said.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS